A little history - Holland

The small island of Texel in Holland gave the breed its name.

The modern type of Dutch Texel evolved as a result of the breed improvement programme, which started long before the establishment of the Dutch Flock Book Association in the 1920's. As a result of careful selection, the Texel has developed into a meat breed of outstanding carcass quality. It is a heavily muscled sheep and the famous "double" muscling of the hindquarters is visible in lambs at an early age. Texels now make up seventy percent of the national flock in the Netherlands and Texel rams are widely used as the terminal sire of butcher's lambs.

In the early 1970s, the superior quality of the Dutch Texel caught the imagination of a handful of pioneering Scottish breeders, but their bold plan to import Texels from the Netherlands was thwarted by stringent UK import laws. Texels from France, which was able to meet UK import requirements, eventually arrived in 1974. Holland exported Texels to the UK at the end of that decade.

Today, Dutch Texels have a dedicated following in the UK, but only a handful of flocks keep their breeding pure Dutch. The Wiston flock is one of the largest and best known. Wiston Texels are registered with the British Texel Sheep Society.

More recent history - Wiston

Having used a Dutch Texel ram in my flock of commercial sheep for several years, I decided in 1987 to start my own flock of pedigree Dutch Texels. It is only natural that I favour this strain of Texel because of my own Dutch background. My first five pedigree Dutch Texels came from the famous Lyons flock - sadly now dispersed.

Three years later, I travelled to Holland to buy some females and from then on, all additions to the flock came from Holland. In 1992 the flock doubled in size with the purchase of 38 females and 5 rams from a single flock, that of CA Commandeur. Today, the Wiston flock of around seventy ewes is based on the bloodlines of the most influential breeders in Holland, all from Texel island - the cradle of the breed.

I travel to Holland regularly either just to visit or to purchase. Living less than 40 minutes from the Port of Harwich, a trip to Holland on the fast ferry takes three and a half hours. Have a look at the website of breeders on the island of Texel: www.texels-schaap.nl